:::CTBride08::: And other Foster Parents!

Alliebooberz

Hey CTBride -

D&R sent me over here to you and said you made an adorable nursery for your foster kids!  DH & I are becoming new foster parents so any tips on D&R and also any general tips would be appreciated  

ctbride08

Welcome to the crazy world of foster parenting!! and i'm really flattered, thanks

Here's some pics of our room while we were in the planning stages: https://2mommies2be.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/as-promised/

then when our son came (then 3yo), we did a quick change to make it look like this:

(he picked out the bedding)

the mis-matched wood in the room bothered me to no end.  but, all is well because a year later he moved into a new bedroom downstairs that was fully redone to his liking (Red Sox theme) and I can now breathe easy with matching wood in all the rooms, lol.   

the biggest thing is to keep it simple and as interchangable as possible so it can be easily customized for the child when you get a placement.  We are licensed for 0-5 which is why we had a bed and a crib...the crib also converts to a toddler bed if we had gotten a toddler. I put the changing pad on the dresser instead of getting an entire changing table since we didnt really know if we would need one. And other things like that. The biggest thing the agency/state is going to be looking for is safety so make sure you put covers on the outlets, put up a carbon monoxide and fire detector, tie up any hanging strings from the blinds, ect.  As cute and adorable as your room may be, they really don't care

Also, as good as it is to be prepared ahead of time, you could never have everything (without potentially wasting a lot of $$!).  So my biggest piece of advice is to have a "go to" person who you can call to run out to the store with a list when you get the call for placement.

 Best of luck!! i'm happy to help with any other questions you may have!